Global corruption survey: Ukraine has highest level of corruption among Newly Independent States

International civil rights organization Transparency International has launched a new Global Barometer, where Ukraine placed the last among the New Independent States with an index of 4.3 index.

In the report, which was made public in Brussels, the following corruption indexes are provided: Armenia – 3.1, Azerbaijan – 3.3, Belarus - 3.4, Georgia – 3.1, Moldova – 3.5, Mongolia – 3.7, Russia – 3.9 and Ukraine – 4.3.

Among the European Union and other countries the corruption index was calculated for Austria (2.8), Bulgaria (4), Czechia (3.4), Denmark (2.4), Finland (2.5), Greece (3.7), Hungary (3.8), Iceland (3.5), Israel (3.5), Italy (3.7), Luxemburg (3.3), The Netherlands (2.6), Norway (3.1), Poland (3.5), Portugal (3.4), Romania (4), Spain (3.2), Switzerland (2.8), The United Kingdom (3.3), the United States (3.7) and Canada (3.2).

The survey, which was held from October 2008 to February 2009 in 69 countries, polled 73,132 respondents.

Most of the respondents were greatly concerned by the growth of corruption in the private sector, which increased by 8% if compared to results of 2003. Many respondents think that bribery is used to influence politics and the regulatory sector for the benefit of companies. This opinion is widespread in the newly independent states, the Americas, the West Balkans and Turkey.

Most of those polled said that they consider political parties as the most corrupt domestic institution.

More than one out of every 10 respondents had to pay bribes last in the last 12 months. Four out of ten bribe-givers said the bribe was 10% of their annual income.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra-Leone and Uganda top list of countries affected by low-level bribery. The results show that people with low income pay bribes more frequently than the rich ones when they deal with the police, law, land sector and education.

On the whole, the results show that the state anti-corruption measures are ineffective.

When asked what sector they consider the most corrupt, most people said it was politics (29%). The rest named state officials (26%), parliament (16%), business and private sector (14%), legal institutions (9%) and the mass media (6%).